The present disclosure is directed to a scraper blade for a conveyor belt cleaner and its method of manufacture, and in particular to a scraper blade having a body including a first body portion comprising a first material having a first durometer, a second body portion comprising a second material having a second durometer, and a transition portion extending between the first body portion and the third body portion comprising a blend of the first material and the second material.
Conveyor belts that carry highly abrasive bulk materials, such as iron-ore, wear faster at the center of the conveyor belt than at the edges of the conveyor belt. This differential in conveyor belt wear is due to a greater loading of the abrasive bulk material at the center of the belt than at the edges of the belt, such that the center of the belt carries a larger portion of the weight of the conveyed bulk material than do the edges of the belt. The scraper blades of a conveyor belt cleaner that are located at the center of the conveyor belt also wear faster than the scraper blades that are located at the edges of the conveyor belt. Fine carry back material often remains adhered to the conveyor belt after the conveyed material has been discharged from the belt. The fine carry back material is more heavily concentrated at the center of the belt than at the edges of the belt. This causes a differential in wear between the scraper blades of the conveyor belt cleaner that are located at the center of the belt and the scraper blades that are located at the edges of the conveyor belt.
The combination of these two conditions, increased loading and a greater amount of carry back material at the center of the belt, causes accelerated wear to the center of the conveyor belt and to the scraper blades of a conventional conveyor belt cleaner that are located at the center of the belt. The differential in the wear of the conveyor belt and in the wear of the scraper blades of a conveyor belt cleaner results in a generally elongate elliptical-shaped cavity being formed between the conveyor belt and the scraper blades at the center of the belt that quickly grows in size and allows unacceptable quantities of carry back material to pass beyond the conveyor belt cleaner.
Conventional conveyor belt cleaner scraper blades are mounted on a cross shaft that is moved either rotationally or linearly to press the scraper blades into scraping engagement with the belt. When a plurality of scraper blades are located adjacent to one another, each blade can be formed from a different respective material, however, this can lead to large abrupt changes in the pressure with which the scraper blades are pressed into engagement with the conveyor belt between adjacent scraper blades.